Predator Is About To Meet His Strangest Foe Yet
We all know that Predator bleeds, but killing it has been something that many different characters have tried to accomplish, and the damned thing just keeps coming back for more. For its next dose of mass mayhem, Predator is heading to the quaint little town of Riverdale for Archie Meets Predator. Yes, Archie Andrews, the redheaded ladykiller who has sparked groan-filled chuckles for more than 70 years. Crossovers just don’t get any better than this. Sorry, I mean they do, but this is still fantastic.
Dark Horse Comics is teaming up with Archie Comics for the mash-up, which will span four issues starting in Spring 2015. The miniseries sees a whole squad of Riverdale teens—including Betty, Veronica, Cheryl, and Reggie—heading out to spring break in Costa Rica after Jughead wins a prize from a bag of chips. Some of the females are competing in a best-dressed competition, and a fight between Betty and Veronica ends with the blonde sweetheart running off into the jungle. And we all know what hangs out in the jungle. Bugs. But also Predator. Take a peek at the first image below.
Don’t go thinking this will be resolved by puns and one-liners, as de Campi says slaughter is definitely involved. And the original Predator‘s influence will be felt, for the writer is a huge fan of the film and has no trouble quoting it from memory.
I’ll be putting in little Easter eggs from the film throughout the story — still working out a situation in which it would be feasible for an Archie character to say, “I’m a goddamn sexual tyrannosaur,” though. Sounds like possibly a Reggie line.
The team from Archie Comics were apparently fine with anything de Campi wants to put these characters through, which is no surprise as they’ve already had big success with the zombie-led Afterlife with Archie series. De Campi says she’s taking the characters back to their early days in the 1940s when the girls still had some bite to them.
“My Veronica is the slightly thoughtless socialite who wants Archie because he is the one thing she can’t buy,” she explains, “while Betty is a somewhat fragile obsessive who believes Archie is hers and only hers because they grew up together.” You might say to yourself, “Who gives a shit, if Predator is going to come in and kill everyone anyway?” And you’d be a terrible person if you thought that, because genre fiction always needs strong character development to be outstanding.
We’ve seen Predator take on a Xenomorph, Judge Dredd and other icons of pop culture, but never has anyone quite like Archie come into its sights. Though Archie did have dealings with The Punisher, so he’s used to hulking, violent things. Will you guys be reading this when it comes out next year?
